Pillars Of Light
by bloodstainedlace
Summary: A lone UFC soldier is the only thing standing between the civilian colony and the zerg brood.


25,64 by 23 east niner charlie charlie delta.  
There were pillars of gold in the sky...Lights as bright as the sun itself. It seemed like heaven.  
Killgore snapped out of the daydream. All around bombs came down like a jungle rain, filling the air around him with light and thunder. He called for Jaeger, "Do you think we'll ever get out of this shit?" No answer. He turned to find Jaegar propped up against the hull of the bunker, pinned there by the acid-dripping hydralisk spine right through his face plate.  
Behind him, the Colonel let loose hell, the muzzle red-hot as slug after slug pounded through the barrel, tearing at flash like a saw through wood. But it seem as if for every 1 the colonel would bring down, 3 more would rise in its place.An endless sea of writhing flesh. Clawing for him. Screaming for him. PFC Killgore jammed another clip into his rifle, the only friend he had ever known, and dispense his own personal torrent of death and destruction. O'Malley yelled at him from the left.

"That bunker door ain't gonna hold long. Those claws ain't made of paper you know."

Killgore glanced behind him. The door that was their final bastion against the swarm was covered in claws and talons. He could almost see their darkred eyes engulfing every opening. O'Malley grabbed him by his shoulder.  
"I'm gonna go out there and grab the SCV outside. You and James are gonna cover me while I weld a coupla plates over that door. That should be you a few more seconds right?"

Killgore surveyed O'Malley's face. A smile betrayed the fear that O'Malley had for what would inevitably his final job as an SCV pilot. Killgore nodded and Hawkeye(James' nickname) stood up. His T-87 Class Firebat suit, scars, burns and all, prepped and ready to go. He tested the plasma stream though one of the gouges on the door. Horrible, hellish screams issued from the denizens of hell outside. "I'm surprised the damn thing still works." Hawkeye smirked. "On 3, you open that door Killgore, close it, and never open it again, no matter what happens." O'Malley stripped himself of all but his shirt, pants and boots. Hawkeye gave one last squeeze of liquid hot plasma through the gouges. A zergling claw almost ripped off one of the tubes.

"Alright...One...Two...Three!" Killgore smashed the panel. The door immediately rushed upwards as Hawkeye let loose the full fury of his suit upon those outside. Killgore immediately started firing on any of the zerglings that tried to get at Hawkeye's back, having learned far before that the firebat's greatest weakness was the 40 gallon pack of high explosive liquid strapped to the man's back.  
The colonel turned and offered what support he could to the group. O'Malley rushed outside and hunkered into the lone SCV stationed at the nearby garage. Hawkeye was like someone out of hell. Searing, molten-hot plasma coming from each end of his arm as if he were some god of fire. None came even 3 meters within his sight without getting burnt to a crisp. O'Malley quickly grabbed a few metal plates from the garage and started welding them onto the bunker. The zerglings began to attack him as they realized he was coming between them and their prey. O'Malley began to fire at those on his back when Hawkeye screamed, "YOU SHUT THAT GOD DAMN DOOR RIGHT NOW!" Hawkeye aimed the last of his plasma at O'Malley. He washed off the zerg covering the SCV as if he were washing suds off a car. He was half covered in zerglings, his blood mingling with their burnt flesh. Killgore could barely see his face as he shut the door. From outside came a loud crash, and a wave of heat swept throught he bunker.

"Suicide bomb." whispered the Colonel with a rasp. Killgore kneeled down. The colonel had three of the devilish hydralisk spines embedded in his chest. They had long decomposed through his armor, shirt, and his chest. The foul blood was beggining to reach his lungs as the colonel grabbed Killgore.

"What we did today was not for nothing soldier. The meager amount of lives lost today would not have made up for the thousands that would have been lost had we not stood up for them. You think people will forget what we did? Yeah. There's no hero story going on here. Hell, no one will even remember our names. What they will remember though, was that they lived this day. And they lived the next. And it will be that way until their time is up. You were a soldier. Born a soldier. Raised a soldier. And you will be remembered as a soldier should be"  
With a final, bloody cough, the colonel's soul left his body. Killgore turned towards the bunker opening. He let loose his final clip of C-32 ammo...And as he did, he felt something hit him in the chest...Like he had been hit by a sledge hammer. He looked down and saw the hydralisk spike through his chest. He knelt down...His gaze was growing dim. From his position, he was able to look up through the opening.  
In the sky, a thousand UFC ships raced through the atmosphere, racing faster the higher they became. He smiled. The trails of fire they left behind seemed as golden pillars of light. Lights racing towards heaven. He closed his eyes, and felt the air rush behind him. He felt nothing now. He let the darkness engulf him. 


End file.
